Pass a Five-Year Farm Bill

It’s time to turn up the heat on Congress to pass a five-year farm bill, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation and Missouri Farm Bureau.

Those groups, along with Sen. Roy Blunt and Rep. Vicky Hartzler, teamed up at a news conference during the Missouri State Fair to encourage legislators to pass legislation important to agriculture.

The farm leaders and policy makers met at Missouri Farm Bureau’s State Fair building during Legislators’ Day at the Missouri State Fair. In addition to members of the news media, several hundred farmers and ranchers packed the building for the event. They waved specially designed “Bring The Heat” cardboard fans from the crowd.

AFBF farm policy specialist Mary Kay Thatcher joined the farm leaders and lawmakers to bring attention to the organization’s August recess grassroots campaign—“Bring the Heat.” While the Missouri event focused on the farm bill, the other campaign components are ag labor reform and passage of waterways improvement legislation.

Thatcher urged Congress to pass a five-year farm bill instead of another extension when they return to Washington, DC., after Labor Day. She asked farmers and ranchers to tell members of Congress to move quickly toward passage of the bill that affects both consumers and the agricultural community before the bill expires at the end of September.